5 points of Arsenal interest vs Bayern Munich

Sometimes you have to put all your pessimism to one side because that’s what football fandom requires.

Things that are of interest tonight.

Away Goals

The advantage of playing the first leg away is you can land that away goal and come back to an extra 10% boost from the crowd in London and see off the game with a dirty double pivot. That’s where the strategy comes into play. Are we going to Bayern to nick a goal and defend like heroes? If so, how are we planning to achieve that?

Tactics

PSG absolutely blew it out of the park last night with an incredible showing of aggression and hard work. Their pressing game was a sight to behold, watching players you wouldn’t normally associate with beast mode all working together to make Barcelona look like a team of old men being taught a lesson. Bayern can press like that, we know they’ll have that up their sleeves tonight, so what is the plan?

I’d set up with finesse in mind and power play counter attacking football. Coquelin is a mistake in my opinion, especially under pressure of aggressive teams who will give you zero seconds on the ball. My midfield would blend hardwork with great on the ball skills. My attack would likely not include Mesut Ozil, who is off form and a bit of a waste in big games like these. I’d have a front three that boasted pace and intelligence. I’d go for Welbeck, Sanchez… struggling with who hits the right because we have no Ramsey, who did a great job pressing from the front against United last season, and we don’t have Perez who is injured. Not quite sure Iwobi has done enough to merit a place?

My midfield would be Xhaka, Elneney and Chamberlain. I really hope he doesn’t put Chambo on the right, The guy has been electric in the middle and he has a range of attributes that could be of use if he has a good game this evening.

The Press

Do Arsenal have a plan for the aggressive press? Will Bayern set up to allow us possession so they can steal and break at pace. What is our plan? Can we play over the press? Will we set up with players who can deal with aggression? Will we counter press and fu*k up their rhythm? This is not Swansea, Watford or Bournemouth. What are we going to do here?

Ozil

Going to be very interesting to see if Wenger drops him. Rumblings in the media that the team aren’t impressed with him, his form has dipped massively and he plays badly in big games. At the very most, I’d have him playing on the left. But if my season was reliant on him, I’d not have him in the side. He’s not been worthy of a start and it sends the wrong message to the players if you can play like an arsehole and still start. Not to mention it seems tactically weak to start him.

Giroud

Rumours from Ornstein, the god of correct information, is that Theo will not be starting. So what does that mean? Could Wenger sh*t the bed here and roll with Giroud as the ‘lob it to the big man’ go to guy? That would be really upsetting. I really hope we have something different up our sleeves because our form has not been good enough to go there and slog it out.

We’ll see though. It would not surprise me to see us win here, but I am very concerned it could be a mauling.

Covering all bases…

Recording a podcast after, so you’ll hear how I’m feeling in the morning.

First reaction: Well, at least this is the final nail in Wenger’s coffin. He can’t stay after this, right?

Realization 30 seconds later: All it takes is one minor success the rest of the season (FA Cup? Beating the two Manchester clubs? Beating Bayern 2-0 at home?), and he’ll announce he’s staying for two more years, and the Wenger apologists will talk about him turning the corner.

People on Twitter saying not to call Wenger any bad names, but what do you say about someone who has single handedly turned Arsenal into a joke and an embarrassing mess?

Wenger changing Arsenal was a myth.
Check out how inept Arsenal were in Europe during Wenger’s first 8 years in charge
We even lost to Chelsea at home in 2004 after drawing the first leg at their place…pathetic..

What upsets me the most is that out of all the big teams in Europe and England nobody respects or fears us. Sure occasionally we can get a good result when it doesn’t really matter. But you can always count on us melting on the big stage. We must be the easiest “top club” to play against. It’s embarrassing.

I will reserve criticism of any player from now on until Wenger goes. We simply don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. We do know that many good players have come to Arsenal and became useless not long after arrival. If the players don’t perform even though we know they are capable, it’s a mentality thing. The manager has to sort it out. Why is the player not performing? If there’s no answer to it, he has to look for alternatives.

The trouble with Arsenal is that Wenger has a one track mind. He’ll continue with the same set up till the cows come home and won’t change anything.

Having said all that, nearly all of us on here wrote CL off in the summer. It would be a bit rich to start complaining about it now. It was well predicted and it’s come true. We’re once again out in the last 16. We were more interested in the PL but a lot of us predicted that we didn’t stand a chance of winning that either. That prediction will also come true. So really, criticizing the players and telling them to fuck off is just a knee jerk reaction. The root of the anger is where it’s always been – why does Arsene carry on managing?

There truly are no words for what we have just witnessed. Arsenal played like absolute garbage at every position today. Every known weakness was glaringly exposed with incredible ease.

I’m embarrassed. The players should be embarrassed. Wenger should be embarrassed, but his ridiculous arrogant ego is such that he’s incapable of such an emotion. For me, in supporting this team for 40 years now – THIS IS the lowest point, period.

lukeFebruary 15, 2017
21:29:40
“We would have been better off forfeiting and taking the 3-0 loss…”

Lol….We would actually have been better off quite a few times in the first leg if we chose to do this & been better off in the second leg. It’s just so ridiculous at this point…….time to go grandpa wenger

I don’t need to be told to move on by people who love the club so much they’re happy when we lose.

When was the last time you attended a match?

I want Wenger out but anyone who thinks Wenger will be sacked mid season is a fucking moron. Wenger announcing now he’s leaving at the end of the season wouldn’t be good news – the players would switch off and guaranteed we’d drop out of the top 4 which would then hurt the next guy’s recruitment plans.

Jim
I would agree with you that Iwobi isn’t playing well but I don’t get your constant comparison with Ozil.
Iwobi is doing quite well for a 20 year old in his first full season. Wenger has played him too much.
Besides the wages do matter, Iwonbi is easy to do away with Iwobi if the project fails. It’s Ozil who’s asking for a mega salary and is guaranteed a start no matter what.

Marc: the man that has a unique view on hitler… ” he was a very useful painter and was a loyal and patriotic soldier”.
Anyone defending wengers right to keep his job after this season is a fcking deluded fckwit!

No offense, but anyone who is still “in the middle” on the question of Wenger is a moron whose opinion counts for naught. Seriously.

As for fans who seem to be taking some pleasure in this loss, I will say again: I prefer these folks to the cunts who have been defending this shit-show for the past several years. These people — those who have defended Wenger — are the real enemies of Arsenal Football Club.

Marc no one deep down is enjoying this but people cope with it in different ways why he all emotional over a team that are so predictable even i think I’ll turn my name into Nostradamus predicting this shit.

@Marc – “He has to go but people “salivating” a comment used earlier at the result is just pathetic.”Yeah I mean, we’ve all said he needs to go and he does, but we can at least be dignified in how we approach the matter. Tonight I saw a frail old man, that has so clearly been left behind and looks like he has no idea what to do next, I really do feel sorry for him. Its time for him to walk away from it all

Are you two having a laugh??

He’s stealing 8,5 m pounds a season.

He’s made a fortune out of Arsenal

Frail old man. Oh boo fucking hoo. No one is telling him to stay. No one made him stay all this time.

He has no problem telling the fans to fuck
Off.

He brought nothing to
Arsenal that wasn’t already in Europe. It’s not like it was revolutionary. Don’t think ancelotti would have brought that to
Arsenal Had he been hired???

He brought players. Blah blah blah. DB10 and the back 5 were already here. Because he had access to the untapped French market. Not because he was some sort of draw. He created Henry viera etc.

Yeah euro winning players on the French national team. Real hidden gems there

Where’s Welbecchio tonight? We all knew this was coming but the manner of the capitulation was incredible, Pedro tweeting that this is how the Chelsea players were playing last year when Mourinho lost the dressing room.
No coming back from this never wanted the team to lose before this season, hopefully we get spanked by a similar margin in the return leg

The reason I am comparing him to Ozil is because both players are playing terrible and both are starting each week without fail but only one is catching shit from the fans.

I’m totally aware of the age, wage and expectation gap. Both when you play for Arsenal you need to be of a particular standard, both players are taking a position in the team, both are taking a spot that could be handed to another player.

Honestly, I would like us to sell Ozil and I would like to see Iwobi on the bench.

I also feel its pretty safe to bash Ozil (and once again he deserves it), but people tend to give Iwobi a free pass because he is somewhat of a fan favourite.

If he signs a new contract now, the club will have no sporting credibility at all.

I’d let Tony Adams have the team until the end of the season.I know he has an average record at best, but just to let him instill some pride back in the shirt and some defensive organisation on the pitch. He’d soon stop some of these overpaid loanees of our shirt from nicking a wage.

I wouldn’t care where we finish, European places or not, all i know is that this is not my Arsenal. I hate what we have now become under Wenger. He should be in that changing room saying his goodbyes to the team then clearing his desk in the morning.

How many ‘naive,’ ‘jaded,’ ‘not sharp enough’ and ‘not mentally there’ comments do you think Wenger will give in the post-match conference? Also try to pin shipping four goals on losing Kozz as well, slyly though.

I expect him to go on the offensive as well, one of those ‘now you all get to write the stories you wanted to’ type of moments.

After close to 20 years as Arsenal’s guardian, Wenger is now an absent parent, and this his final fall from the wagon. The toddlers are drawing all over the walls, there’s no dinner on the table and the nappies ran out two months ago. It’s time to take Arsenal into care.

After close to 20 years as Arsenal’s guardian, Wenger is now an absent parent, and this his final fall from the wagon. The toddlers are drawing all over the walls, there’s no dinner on the table and the nappies ran out two months ago. It’s time to take Arsenal into care.”

Yeah I completely understand, I’m personally just done with it, we all want him to do the right thing and step down.

If I am being honest with you, I find the whole thing pretty fucking sad. Its all his own doing, but having his reign end like this is horrendous considering his first decade at the club. The man should have walked away after we beat Hull in the FA Cup final.

Wenger has wasted 6 years now, because the serious financial hardships ended around 2010/2011 when the Highbury Square loan got paid off. During these six years, he has ‘earned’ about 45 large ones.

Two FA Cups are a poor haul from these six years, especially considering missing out on the league to Leicester, not really competing for league past February every year, groundhog seasons in CL, identical problems every year. But yeah, feel sorry for Le Fraud all night long.

“”I felt we were unlucky for the second goal. The referee gave a corner for us at first. Then we concede the second goal and then the most important was that we lost Koscielny. We collapsed.

“Overall I must say they are a better team than us, they played very well in the second half and we dropped our level. We were a bit unlucky we dropped our level and they were better than us.”

WEngre, BBC

What did I tell you he always blames bad luck. He doesn’t ask the important Qs such as why is Bayern better than us? Why aren’t we at their level? I thought the purpose of the Emirates was to take us there?

No, Iwobi is a CAM being played as a wide player. And he’s 20 years old, and for a 20 year old being played out of position, he’s a actually played pretty well. I repeat: you’re focus on him is a little strange. And no, he isn’t one of my favorite players, but do think he’s a decent player, and I think your assessment of him is wildly off the mark and bizarre.

Like I said if Wenger is blaming mental tiredness, he has to shoulder the blame. Ironic that Wenger has one of the mentally fragile teams in world football even though he speaks of mental strength all the time. As for mental strength, Wenger clearly knows nothing about it as demonstrated by his squad year after year.

What did I tell you he always blames bad luck. He doesn’t ask the important Qs such as why is Bayern better than us? Why aren’t we at their level? I thought the purpose of the Emirates was to take us there?”

He either actually means it and is that deluded or he’s completely just disingenuous and trying to shift blame.

He’s like that manager at your job that is completely in over his head and he knows it so he blames everything and everyone around him in order to save his pay packet .

Feel sorry for Sanchez tonight as well, it will be absolutely gutting to see him go, especially as he witnessed how out of their depth Arsenal are in the elite pool against one of the sides interested in him.

Why are fans feeling so sorry for this fraud Wenger???
I mean he has chosen to manage arsenal for 8 years after logically he should have resigned.
No-one has held a gun at his head and forced him to do this job.
He has walked deliberately in front of a lorry, no-one pushed him.
Also don’t feel sorry for an incompetent useless waste of space that’s pocketing more money than a street full of people.
His massive ego has ultimately been his undoing

“He either actually means it and is that deluded or he’s completely just disingenuous and trying to shift blame.”

If a liar tells himself the lie enough it becomes his reality.

It doesn’t stop it being a lie though to everyone else. Wenger has all the hall marks of a dictator on his last legs trying to embezzle the last few million before he’s hauled off into trial before the Hague.

“Feel sorry for Sanchez tonight as well, it will be absolutely gutting to see him go, especially as he witnessed how out of their depth Arsenal are in the elite pool against one of the sides interested in him.”

I’m still hopeful that if Wenger goes Sanchez could be talked into staying on, bring in someone like Allegri and let him know shit will change around the club.

Why are fans feeling so sorry for this fraud Wenger???
I mean he has chosen to manage arsenal for 8 years after logically he should have resigned.
No-one has held a gun at his head and forced him to do this job.
He has walked deliberately in front of a lorry, no-one pushed him.
Also don’t feel sorry for an incompetent useless waste of space that’s pocketing more money than a street full of people.
His massive ego has ultimately been his undoing

Getting past Sutton means little in the grand scheme of things as I can’t see that saving him. I mean, the first FA cup win to end the drought – i believe we played every game at home until the wembley semi/final. That in itself is fortunate.

He’s 20 years old. And he has done some excellent things this year and is clearly a quality player. Why are we talking about him? Maybe he shouldn’t have gotten the start, but he’s a thousand miles away from being one of our problems.

For me, I feel a bit shit that its come to this, he should have walked 7-8 years ago, he didn’t because of his giant ego and thats inexcusable. Its been sad to see a once great manager reduced to what we see now, clinging onto a job while dragging the club down with him.